Calumet Harbor

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT CALUMET HARBOR - PAGE 3

Coast Guard crews recovered the body of a woman and were searching for a man in Lake Michigan on Monday night east of Calumet Harbor where an overturned boat was discovered. According to Petty Officer Keith Hessler, the 26-foot power boat known as a Sea Ray apparently had hit the north side of the Calumet Harbor breakwater. Petty Officer Marty Ferguson said the woman's body was found in the boat. She had not been identified as of early Tuesday. The missing man was believed to be the boat owner, who is from Oak Lawn.

A Chicago man was still in critical condition Sunday night, a day after he dived into Lake Michigan on the South Side and injured himself by hitting the rocky bottom. Roman Figueroa, 30, was injured Saturday night after he attempted to dive from a restricted area near the shore into about 5 to 7 feet of water, said Chris Runt, an officer with the Calumet Harbor Coast Guard station. Figueroa's friends and relatives, who were with him at the time, notified the Coast Guard about 10:15 p.m. at the nearby Calumet Harbor station, 4001 E. 98th St., Runt said.

Two men were rescued Wednesday from Lake Michigan after their boat capsized near Calumet Harbor, said Coast Guard spokesman Paul Roszkowski. The men were not wearing lifejackets when their 16-foot catamaran overturned in the 40-degree water, Roszkowski said. A security guard at the nearby Commonwealth Edison power plant saw the men in the water and notified the Coast Guard. The men, who were rescued around 5:30 p.m., were wearing wetsuits and had been in the water for about 30 minutes.

An unidentified woman whose partially clad body washed ashore near the Coast Guard's Calumet Harbor station, died from drowning, a spokeswoman for the Cook County medical examiner's office said Monday. A fisherman spotted the body on the Lake Michigan shoreline around noon Sunday near the station at 4001 E. 98th St., officials said. Police said they don't believe foul play was involved.

When Chief Petty Officer William Ferroli joined the U.S. Coast Guard about 15 years ago, he had one goal in mind-to return to Chicago someday and command the station in the neighborhood where he grew up. His career has taken him from New Jersey to California and from Miami to Honolulu. On Saturday, he returned to Chicago with his goal firmly in his grasp. He was sworn in as officer in charge of Coast Guard Station Calumet Harbor, at 98th Street and Lake Michigan. "I wanted to come home to my friends and family and give back what this city gave to me," Ferroli, 33, said after the change-of-command ceremony at the Calumet Park field house.

It's only a flashing light atop a 28-foot-high tower. But for the Coast Guard station in Calumet Harbor, it has brought some much-needed relief and comfort since it was erected earlier this month in an effort to make one of the most notorious breakwalls in southern Lake Michigan less dangerous. Since 1993, four people have died in separate accidents that occurred when boaters crashed into the breakwall because high waves or poor weather conditions prevented them from seeing it. "At night and even during the day, in rough weather, it doesn't even look like there's a wall there and people get disoriented," said Michael Cleary, a boatswain mate first class in the Calumet Harbor station.

A Chicago couple escaped injury when their 22-foot pleasure boat caught fire and sank in Lake Michigan early Friday. A private boater in the area picked up the husband and wife, whose names were not available from Coast Guard or Chicago Fire Department officials. North Side residents called 911 at around 5:45 a.m. after they saw heavy smoke rising from the horizon about a mile east of Devon Avenue, according to Petty Officer Brad Sime of the Calumet Harbor Coast Guard station.

A woman whose partially clothed body washed ashore near the Coast Guard's Calumet Harbor lakefront station was identified Tuesday as a 34-year-old from Chicago, police said. The body of Christina Griffin, of the 10400 block of Avenue M, was spotted by a fisherman on the Lake Michigan shoreline about noon Sunday near the station, 4001 E. 98th St., officials said. Griffin's body was identified through fingerprints, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office, which says she drowned.

An Orland Hills man was charged Saturday with felony theft and criminal recklessness after he allegedly stole a boat from Hammond Marina, took it for a joyride with five friends and then crashed it on a Calumet Harbor breakwall, police said. Hammond police spokesman Brian Miller said charges were filed against Lawrence Bokal Jr., 25. The theft of the $150,000 boat occurred late Thursday when six people boarded a $150,000 boat owned by a Lockport resident.

The Coast Guard's long-awaited quest for speed on the Great Lakes was realized this week when three new boats capable of racing up to 52 m.p.h. began patrolling Chicago's shore to safeguard against terrorist attacks. For years before Sept. 11, 2001, aging Coast Guard fleets were left in the wake of much faster boats operated by drug smugglers and illegal immigrants. But with the potential of terrorist attacks by sea, the federal government began pouring millions of dollars into modern vessels called Homeland Security Response Boats, which are designed for endurance and include weapons capabilities.